Mario Fragiacomo

MARIO FRAGIACOMO, trumpetist, flugelhornist, composer was born in Triest (Italy). He started studyingmusic privately when he was 9 years old. His father, a former band player, is the one who first turnedhis thoughts into studying wind instruments. At 12 he started playing in the "Ricreatorio G. Brunner"band of Triest.

In the sixties he attended at the same time both the Conservatory "G. Tartini" in Triest and theaccountancy school. In 1971 he had the opportunity of playing with the Silvio Donati Jazz group at theBayreuth Youth International Festival in Germany. Following a co-operation with various musicalgroups, in 1973 he formed the "Trieste Jazz Ensemble", and with this group he performed severalconcerts of "Free jazz". He devoted then himself to the study of contemporary music, going deeper intothe study of jazz music. After moving to Milan, he improved his studies at "Nuova Milano Musica" withSergio Fanni and Luciano Biasutti. In 1977 he took part of a study seminar with Evan Parker and AndreaCentazzo and the Course on Jazz Music held in Milan by Giorgio Gaslini at the "Giuseppe Verdi"Conservatoire and subsequenthly entered his Big Band.

He has been playing for many years with other jazz big band as: New Group Big band by Sergio Meroniand Enos Patracchini Big band Studio and with these orchestras he held many concerts all over Italy.

In 1979 he formed the "Jazz Quatter Quartet", a quartet whose aim was to find a common musicallanguage deriving from the experience of jazz historical avantguard. With this group he has broughtthe music to a wider and younger public in alternative places such as schools, psychiatric hospitals,juvenile prisons, public libraries, thus starting a new musical trend. In 1988 he recorded the firstproject as leader: the LP "Trieste, ieri un secolo fa" entered the Top Ten Records of italian jazz - Thebest record of the year for the Referendum of "Musica Jazz" magazine. In 1990 he co-operated withMarkus Stockhausen, one of the famous Karlheinz music sons, for the realization of his project ofmiddle Europe music recording "Mitteleuropa" CD. Since 1991 to 1995 he co-operated with CRTArtificio in Milan for the multimedia show "Golem" of Moni Ovadia and Daniele Abbado. He entered theOrchestratheater of Moni Ovadia as soloist and played in the most important theaters all over Italy suchas Petruzzelli Theater in Bari, Comunale Theater in Ferrara, Metropolitan Theater in Palermo,Filodrammatici Theater in Milano, etc. and abroad at Hebbel Theater in Berlin, at Stary Teatr of Cracow,at La Mama E.T.C. Theater in New York, at Renaud-Barrault Theater in Paris.

At present he is deeply involved in his composing and trumpet playing activities in the "MitteleuropaEnsemble", group that he formed in 1988 in Milan. The music of this new group is a blend oflanguages, ispired by balcan ethnic music (including also the Klezmer music heritage of Eastern Europe)and fits into a way which takes into account both the jazz and the popular music, and all theMitteleuropean culture, literary and musical, therefore approaching to the "Total Music".

As an essayist he wrote in some Italian music magazines.